KAGAYAKI
by 01Trycia-chan01
Summary: Sakura happens upon Sasuke in a hotel room during a mission...and things don't go well. Post war Pre chapter 701 Rated MA... for a reason Eventual Naruto X Sakura pairing.
1. Surprise

KAGAYAKI

Hi there! I hope you guys enjoy this! POV perspectives are noted in bold.

**Don't expect sunshines and rainbows and a quick get-together of Naru and Saku! There's going to be a lot of sakuxmulti and strife but I promise you it will end up as NaruSaku. Love in real life doesn't work like 1,2,3 so I hope you guys are ready for this ride. **

**Also this fic is M rated! It's for a reason! It's not clean and G rated and Simba and Pumba and stuff. **

|1|

Just because it sparkles, doesn't mean its gold.

Really, for a smart girl, Haruno Sakura was a damned fool.

That, however, is getting ahead of the story. It is always best to begin a tale at the beginning…

**KAKASHI**

Rokudaime Hokage Hatake Kakashi leaned against the viewing window in his office with his arms crossed across his chest. The hook next to his head of silver hair supported his kage robe and hat. His chest rose and fell with a sigh and his eyes closed, but only for a moment. When he reopened them he continued his scrutiny of the three shinobi standing at the other side of his desk.

Uzumaki Naruto. Haruno Sakura. Yamanaka Sai.

How the three have changed over the years…

They arrived outfitted in their anbu gear as his missive requested and stood as silent as wraiths as they watched him watch them. Sakura looked like she was analyzing six thousand theories on his thoughts in her mind, Sai looked bored, infinitely used to anbu work and Naruto's index finger twitched at his side, a small indication of his dwindling patience and limitless energy.

Were they ready for this mission? He couldn't be sure. It was three months ago that Iwa had noticed a new drug trade forming on the outskirts of the western side of their country that had made its way into the heart of Iwagakure.

Three months ago, they sent an anbu squadron to investigate the drug trail, find the bastard spreading the death pills around, and destroy him and any lab he might have.

It sounded valiant and perhaps even _easy_. However, there wouldn't be a story without conflict would there? He shifted his eyes to Naruto. The boy's story had yet to begin and there was already trouble brewing. He tapped a finger on his bicep in thought. The muscle felt smaller… perhaps he'd spent too many days and nights trapped in the tower, pouring over this new dilemma.

After the initial discovery of Iwa's dead squadron a week after that anbu mission, the five nations joined forces and minds to investigate the details of the mission gone awry. Six anbu don't just die on one drug-related mission, after all. What kind of monsters were they dealing with?

That was when Kakashi had acted. That was when he had extended an invitation to Naruto, Sai, and Sakura to join anbu. He promoted them and all they had needed to do was accept, which eagerly, they did… thanks to Naruto's exuberance and natural tendency to lead. Sai had been bored with the promotion, naturally. The man had been in the worst form of anbu before and didn't bat an eyelash. The only affect it had on his life was that it worried his wife.

Ino lost her mind when he had accepted the promotion.

She practically broke down the door to Kakashi's office in a fit while citing reasons, such as the effect the missions might have on Sai's recovering mental health, to convince him to rescind the promotion. No amount of explaining on Sai's part convinced her to calm down. It had taken a long discussion with Sakura to relax her enough to let Sai do as he pleased with his life.

As time passed and Konoha's strike team –as Naruto's squad had been nicknamed— went on mission after mission. There were plenty of bandits and foreigners with evil intent to reign in, after all and the political scene in the capitals of the great countries with the daimyo and all of their scheming lords and ladies and higher houses was still twisted with sharp lies and thorny decisions by people with power to acquire more wealth.

During this time, the great nations sent team after team to the western border of Iwa to catch, at the very least, a scintilla of information on the leader of the drug ring while addiction statistics grew.

The distributor was obviously protected, but by who, they had yet to find out. Just as the Raikage was beginning to suspect the other countries, about a week ago, a bird sent by a now deceased Kiri anbu arrived with images taken by a dropped camera belonging to one of the anbu on the mission. The pictures gave them what they needed. The man in charge was cloaked and wearing a plain, white mask with an exaggerated frown cut into it.

Unoriginal, but effective. It kept his identity a mystery.

His guards were entirely something else. They were to put it in the best term, _large_. There was a team of two flanking the white-masked leader. The man and woman were both large compared to the Kiri anbu in the image, wildly flailing his remaining arm at them, mid-lunge. Kakashi imagined that that was probably his last attack before death, and had murmured a silent prayer for the fallen soul. The duo wore tight, black body suits that stood out against the reddish rock of the Iwa territory the picture was taken in.

Ordinarily, simple fabric coating the human body was a pathetic form of armor, however, Kakashi could tell by the stitching in the fabric that it was made of something else— a different kind of material— that more than likely provided them more protection than one would initially assume. If it weren't for the bodysuits, Kakashi wouldn't have been able to tell their sexes apart. Both of them had their heads covered in the same black material and their masks were blood red. That was it.

The masks had no eyeholes, and were not perforated in any sort of way.

Strange.

The strange couple protecting the white-masked man wore no national insignia… _none_, which was also strange. Even the rogue akatsuki— kami-sama bless Uchiha Itachi's tired soul— wore their individual village's insignia, despite the symbolic slash that ran through their forehead protectors.

Even in recent times, the thugs hired by rich fools in the capital to do their dirty work banded under a similar flag— but that was an entirely separate issue that Kakashi would eventually have to collaborate with the other kage to quash. One thing at a time.

The mizukage had argued against the implied idea that the guards were foreigners from somewhere else, perhaps far past the unknown territory of the west… and then she had said Kakashi looked just as handsome as always. Terumi Mei was a kind woman, but also a desperate one.

Regardless, Kakashi's instincts were rarely ever wrong, and such a fact was stated by Sabaku no Gaara in response to the mizukage's disbelief, which granted Kakashi the right to make a proposition.

…And he proposed to send Konoha's famed strike team to do the job on infiltrating the drug trade.

The Raikage nearly lost his mind. The man had raved for a solid three minutes and seventeen seconds before Ohnoki reminded him that the situation was dire and that Kakashi, in his right mind, wouldn't send Naruto on an infiltration mission unless the blonde was prepared to keep his mouth shut and act accordingly.

Gaara had seen Naruto not three days earlier and assured that sending the blonde's squadron was the best idea.

That was why he was standing here, looking at his students and wondering if sending them on a mission that had killed six teams before them was a wise decision. How poetic that they'd be the seventh team sent to infiltrate the trade in Iwa. Seven was a lucky number, wasn't it? At least, for Kakashi it was. He had faith in the three.

"Kakashi-sensei?" It was Sakura that had popped under the pressure of the silence, not Naruto. How the tables have turned… He shook his head, stood up straight and walked in front of his desk with their eyes on him. He stopped and turned to face them.

"This mission will not be like the others…" He began. Immediately, the mood changed. Black, blue, and green eyes flashed with a seriousness that never failed to surprise him even to this day. He briefed them on the situation at hand. When he paused, Sakura raised her hand. His eyes focused on her and she dropped her slender, but muscled arm.

"Is this why you tempted us to join anbu?" She asked with only a tinge of suspicion in her tone.

He didn't _tempt_ them… not directly. The offer itself was tempting; he had just been the one to deliver it to them.

Who was he trying to fool?

Sakura was right; he _had_ tempted them with the promotion. He _knew_ Naruto would jump at the chance to have some sort of proof of glory to rub into Sasuke's face upon his return. Sakura would go along with it because Naruto was her friend and Sai wouldn't refuse because team seven was deeply ingrained in his heart. He wouldn't have a normal life if it weren't for them.

"Tempted is a bit of a harsh word, isn't it, Sakura-chan?" He gave her a close-eyed smile, but she only shot him a no-nonsense glare as her temper flared. Kakashi wasn't surprised she was angry. Naruto wasn't the only one to see a hefty amount of unsavory things since his initiation to anbu. The death affected Sakura the worst. She was a medic— a _combat_ medic, yes, but still a medic— and taking lives without a second thought because she was ordered to didn't sit well with her. He didn't expect it to.

"Well, your mission is to infiltrate the trade. Find a way, _any_ way in. Get as much intel as you can and keep up your charade until given further orders." He commanded as he handed them each a scroll the width of his finger. Their mission details were etched into the paper, along with storage seals filled with disguises and money for food and lodging.

"I expect a message in a week's time detailing your safe arrival and the beginnings of an infiltration plan." He stated. They stared at him seriously, only because he hadn't dismissed them yet. He didn't want to. They were his family and the last thing he wanted to do was send them headfirst into a situation where there was so little information on such a dangerous enemy. He heaved another sigh, feeling the last thirty-two years weighing down his heart.

"Be safe. Dismissed." He almost whispered. Almost.

Sakura shot him a smile, Naruto grinned and gave him a thumbs up and Sai simply nodded.

"Bet on it, Kakashi-sensei! We'll do this one just like all the others!"

With that last bit of encouragement from Naruto, who seemed to always sense his pain, the three disappeared as if they had never set foot in his office in the first place.

**SAKURA **

Sakura resisted the urge to fidget. Her chin length deep purple wig was stifling. Though the hair on it was natural, it still irritated the back of her neck. She wondered how she ever dealt with her hair being long when she was younger. Thankfully, the violet contacts in her eyes had stopped irritating her earlier on in the night with plenty of help from a small saline bottle that was bundled inside the box the wretched things were packed in.

The room she was in was also stifling, the air caressed by ghosts and wisps of nasty-smelling smoke that wafted off of the lit cigar Sai was currently puffing on as if he'd been smoking his entire life. It was hot in the VIP room above the club as well, and Sakura began to wonder when the _hell_ their visitors would arrive.

She was uncomfortable in her revealing outfit. Her leather shorts were so short she was sure the rounds of her butt cheeks were peeking out. The leather strips crisscrossing down her thighs and meeting her knee-high, heeled, leather boots were too tight as well and her breasts couldn't possibly be any more pushed up in the revealing, black and sleeveless corset-top that to her misfortune had a plunging neckline. Naruto was red-faced in the corner of the room dressed in a black suit, tie and shirt, wearing a fake ear-piece while trying to portray a civilian security thug hired to protect Sai. He crossed his hands in front of him in an effort to look professional.

Perhaps the _most_ uncomfortable person in the room was poor Tenten who did not deserve being put in a sultry, black, corset-romper that also hugged her backside and spilled her cheeks over. The top of Tenten's outfit didn't have a plunging neckline, but that didn't mean that the girl's generous breasts weren't exposed in some form. She didn't need them pushed up—much to Sakura's aggravation— but her top was strapless and as a result they looked at least a cup size bigger.

She had been chosen to rendezvous with their team after about four months, when Sai managed to worm his way into Iwa's ugly underbelly. He started off by selling women into the sex trade and then moved on to drugs from there. Making some "trusted" friends, he had finally gotten his hands into "netsu" the newest drug on the market reportedly coming from the west, sold by a man only known as "Kinzoku". Why he chose to call himself "metal", she had no idea, but they had an "in" and that was all that counted.

Last week was Sai a second-hand dealer. This week, he had finally met the right people and been included in a group of select few that were allowed to have interactions with Kinzoku, the man tying this entire trade to the West, proving Kakashi-sensei's theory true. There certainly was civilization across the East-West border, why wouldn't there be? It was foolish to think otherwise. The problem was that the West wasn't exactly looking like a bright place, or safe for that matter, if people like Kinzoku were selling women and drugs. Sakura could have been judging a little too quickly, but it certainly wasn't a great first impression and that could make politics sour in the future.

An hour ago, Sai's "comrades in trade" had left to go fuck some helpless girls in another VIP room, promising that Kinzoku would be there to meet him shortly. Naruto was currently sensing for the man.

While Tenten fidgeted next to Sai on the leather couch, covering up as much of her chest as she could and brushing her long brown bangs out of her eyes, Sai remained impassive, the bastard. Sakura merely held her arms crossed and tapped her finger against her bicep impatiently, trying to retain some semblance of professionalism.

Behind them was a large viewing window in which streams of colored light flashed across every so often, giving the steamy, dim room a colorful appearance, despite the black things it was usually used for. The rainbows dancing and flashing around the room irritated Sakura more than the muffled music that boomed around them and caused small tremors to run through the stained, grey-carpeted floor and walls.

In front of them was a square, glass coffee table with three pink drinks in matching statuesque champagne glasses resting atop it. They had tossed some of the liquid out to make it look like the alcohol had actually been sipped on and dabbed a bit of alcohol on their lips in case any of their enemies had a keen sense of smell. Sai flicked ash from his cigar into the half-full ash tray filled with cigarette butts that none of them had smoked.

Sakura eyed the cocaine resting in a sugary line on the table and shuddered. As a medic, she knew what cocaine could do to the human body. Once was enough to get you killed and she prayed to Kami-sama three times that the situation wouldn't require any of their party to snort it. She forgot briefly why the abhorred drug was a mere foot and a half away from her and remembered that it was there to make them look authentic.

"It's too perfect." Sai commented, scratching his skin beneath the silver chain around his neck. His dark jeans clung to his legs as he bent over and smudged the line a bit, dumping some of the coke onto the grey carpet where it wouldn't be seen by their visitors. He wiped his hand on his pants, seeing as he didn't have a shirt to wipe it on and Sakura contemplated unsealing her medical kit from the seal at the base of her neck, just under her wig, and giving him some hand sanitizer. With restraint she dismissed the idea. It was better not to use chakra just in case Kinzoku had sensors that they weren't aware of down in the club area.

"Man, when is this asshole going to show up?" Naruto grumbled impatiently from his dim corner. He was clearly tired of standing ramrod stiff. Sakura noticed that his eyes were closed. He was focusing on sensing the enemy.

"I don't know. But when you sense them, let us know as immediately as possible. We have to act convincingly stupid when they get here, at least, you two do." Sai explained as he eyed Tenten and Sakura.

"Why was I sent here again?" Tenten grumbled. "Heels really aren't my thing."

"Because you're average-looking." Sai bluntly replied, unafraid of being offensive. Tenten rightfully punched him and Sakura noted that the seal holding her weapons and uniform was disguised as a tattoo on her thigh. They were as ready as they were going to be.

"Just remember to be a total whore." She advised her friend.

"I don't know how to be a total whore." Tenten grimaced and Sakura noticed her look temptingly at her nails, as if she wanted to bite them.

"Me neither." Sakura frowned. "Maybe this was a shitty idea."

"Neither of you were introduced to _that_ when you entered anbu?" Sai asked with a mildly annoyed sigh.

"No." Tenten replied. "Not _that_."

"Kakashi-sensei cut it out of the program and wanted to reorganize it somehow. I guess he should have left it." Sakura mused. Who would've thought she'd ever condone sex as a requirement for anbu?

"I-I'm kind of glad he cut _that_ stuff out…ttebayo."

Naruto didn't look like himself in a black wig and green contacts. His whiskers were covered with makeup, making them hard to discern in the lighting and giving him a more mature and serious appearance. Sakura dared to think that he was handsome… sexy, even.

"Try not to say that." Sai instructed in regards to Naruto's verbal tick. "And stop being so… _virgin_. You've read porn and pleased your tiny dick to it, haven't you?"

"Fucking Sai-teme my dick _isn't _tiny and—

Naruto cut himself off mid-growl and Sakura's body immediately stiffened.

"They're coming. They're in the building. They're moving slowly." He informed, eyes closed and concentrated.

"We need to get our shit together. If either of you look inexperienced, we're fucked to put it lightly. Try not to screw up." Sai spoke.

"Hai, taicho." Tenten whispered, very nervously as Sai placed an arm over each girl and leaned back, slouching and pulling Sakura closer to him as he took another puff of the cigar.

Sakura could have vomited to the beat of the muffled electronic music. Disgusting. She would have to heal his lungs later. She scooted closer to him and shivered as his hand slipped down her waist. The corset top she wore was thick, but that didn't mean she didn't feel his hand through the fabric.

This was one mission Sakura prayed Ino would _never_ find out about. Granted, Sakura wasn't into Sai. She held not even the slightest scintilla of attraction for him, but it was still a little twisted that she was here in her best friend's husband's arms, gently running her hands up and down his chest and abs.

She was torn between feeling guilt and arousal. No emotional attraction or not, Sai's body was hard, healthy, muscular and warm. She fought her body's natural instincts and focused instead on the music, plastering Sasuke's face onto Sai in her mind, forcing herself to imagine that it was _him_ she was touching, not her teammate. It helped her and she blushed.

Kami-sama what would Sasuke think if he saw this? She would die of embarrassment and remorse. He'd probably lose his shit and want to destroy Konoha all over again, because his friends were being used for…less-than-virtuous situations to complete a mission, much like what had happened to his brother.

Her mind was quickly refocused at the sound of Naruto's stern voice. When had he started to sound stern and official?

"ETA: half a minute or so. Showtime-ttebayo." Naruto murmured into the sultry air of the VIP room. Sakura smiled a little. In recent times he'd grown more professional on missions, taking his position seriously and behaving more and more maturely. She shook her head a second later, and nuzzled her face into Sai's neck.

"Tenten…" Sai spoke, alerting the kunoichi.

"Y-yeah?"

"If you don't put your hands on my body right now I will have to hit you and turn this scene into something entirely different."

"What?"

"Some pimps are abusive. Just imagine he's someone you like, damn it." Sakura hissed across Sai's chest and Tenten gulped, blushing madly.

"Okay."

She felt Sai's chest rise and fall as the door knob jiggled. He quickly reached under her arm and groped her breast. She resisted the urge to punch him, and bit his neck instead for revenge. He stiffened slightly, but a too-natural moan escaped his throat, and Tenten giggled, no doubt laughing at Sakura's misfortune. Her laughter was interrupted by a deep and sultry voice, clearing its throat.

"Kinzoku-dono, I assume?" Sai asked and ran his fingers just underneath the seam of Tenten's top. She shivered but responded by kissing him just behind his ear and digging her nails into the skin of his chest. The action came off as wanton to anyone else, but Sakura noticed from her angle that she was covering the natural reaction to beat the _hell_ out of Sai.

Tenten was definitely _not _suited for these sorts of missions but she was the only Kunoichi in their age group free enough to go on the mission. Ino would have been sent, but that would have just been weird and caused tension within the group since she was married to Sai. Hinata was barred from missions such as this because of some bullshit ancient clan rule about a woman's virtue or something or the other and Anko was too old. Tenten was perfect, _and_ she _was_ average looking, albeit pretty. She _looked_ like the type of girl to be caught and forced into slavery by a pimp.

"Ah. Dai, right?" The deep and smooth voice spoke.

Sakura caught four guards surrounding the man with her peripheral vision as she made a show of kissing Sai's cheek and biting his ear lobe.

_Shit_. Four was a big number.

They'd have to take them out discreetly when the time called for it, _or_ catch the bastards by surprise. Sai must have felt her tense because he turned his face, and murmured across her lips.

"Here, take a hit."

He brought his arm and hand up her side and over her shoulder. She would kill him for this later. Thankfully, there wasn't any marijuana mixed in with the cigar, but they had burned a little in the room earlier to make the setting more believable. The more drugs the better, right? She puffed on the cigar and _forced_ her lungs not to automatically reject the horrendous pollutant, but her efforts were fruitless. She coughed the smoke out, violently shaking against her teammate.

So much for looking experienced. Sai laughed at her.

"Embarrassing. I'll make sure to fuck you extra for that later." He said as he stroked her cheek with that _damnable _cigar still between his two fingers. She made a show of looking a little worried as he turned back to Kinzoku.

"But first we have business don't we?" Sai asked as the door clicked shut. There were three men and one woman guarding Kinzoku. They matched the descriptions in the scroll: tight body suits and red masks. Sakura fidgeted with Sai's necklace to keep her hands occupied. She turned and rubbed the little silver circle, comfortingly running her fingers across the smooth surface, trying to look mellowed out against Sai's shoulder. Idly she realized that it would take her weeks to get the smell of tobacco out of her hair. She was sure the damnable scent would seep through the wig and permeate her locks beneath it.

"We do." Kinzoku answered in a tone that bellied mystery and intrigue. He did not sound old. He wasn't a relic of the old way of the world, like Danzo or the other elders she had the misfortune of meeting during her tutelage under Tsunade-sama. Clearly the fourth war hadn't inspired him to do any good for the world.

They can't all be winners.

"Sit, you look tense, and your guys look pretty stiff too. Have some of the coke, there's enough left for a good hit." Sai offered.

"Slick of you, but I'm no fool, Dai. You should know better." He replied with a chuckle. He took it as a joke, thank _kami-sama_. Sakura nearly lost her shit.

"Mmn." Sai moaned as Tenten's hand roved over—kami-sama _fuck—_ over his damned penis. Her heart rate quickened. No _way_ was she getting turned on by this! Sai slapped her hand… hard. She yelped.

"You should also know better than that." He growled at her as he gripped her hair at the back of her head and pulled her hard enough for Sakura to hear her neck crack. Tenten made a show of looking afraid but Sakura knew there'd be hell to pay for later. He forced her to look at him.

"Know your fucking place. I told you that the first night." He threatened icily. He was _way_ too good at this. What kind of shit had he seen in root, seriously? Tenten made a show of breathing in and out loudly to make herself look afraid and panicked. Surprisingly, she was good at staying in character.

Sai violently let Tenten's hair go, giving her skull an extra shove while doing so and she faked holding back tears while cuddling back into him like a guilty puppy. If she had a tail it would be between her legs.

"At rest." Kinzoku spoke as he raised his hand. The four guards moved simultaneously like programmed machines to stand in a line in front of the _only damned exit in the room_, evenly spaced out from end to end with their hands crossed at their backs and feet shoulder width apart.

Sakura ran her fingers across Sai's jaw as sensually as she possibly could, feigning disinterest in the conversation. Sai disentangled himself from her for a moment and put his cigar out in the ashtray. He lifted a glass of champagne and took a drink, placing the glass back down.

"Do you want any? I can have service bring some more up." Sai offered.

"I'm fine." Kinzoku explained as he sat down in a leather armchair across from them. Sakura quietly watched him with what she hoped were curious, violet eyes.

The man slid off his mask and shrugged off his cloak. Beneath his disguise, he was well-dressed in a business suit and had tan skin, steel-colored eyes and dark hair. He was Kakashi-sensei's age and built. Obviously he had some form of shinobi training otherwise he wouldn't be in peak form.

His silvered eyes were sharp as they flicked to her. She made a show of being surprised and looked down. She had done some reading on human trafficking and Sai had given her a few pointers. Instinct for such broken women was to look down as they'd been taught. Sai leaned back, grabbed her chin and forced it up as he pulled her back against the couch with him, rubbing Tenten's arm simultaneously.

"My women don't look down. Your pussy's better quality so act like it." He instructed coldly, tone promising punishment if she didn't obey.

Don't glare. Don't glare. Don't glare. Fucking hell, don't glare.

"Okay." She meekly whispered out and nodded, amazed that she hadn't clenched her teeth together. "Shannaro" was just at the tip of her tongue but she held it back as she settled back against her _professionally asshole _teammate. He let go of her chin and cleared his throat.

"Sora told me how much you want moved." Sai cut right to the chase as Kinzoku settle further back into his chair. He placed his calloused hands at the edge of the sharp, angled armrests and tapped a finger before he responded.

Sakura made sure to keep note of any other taps or missteps in his movement. Anything could be a code and it was imperative for her to be ready when necessary.

"Can you do it?" Kinzoku asked.

"Of course. How much will I get, though? Keep in mind that I always unload some of it into the public too."

How many people had they poisoned to get to this point? The medic and savior in her cringed and yearned to find every addicted citizen out there and help them recover. It wasn't her place right now so she held back and continued to play with the little metal circle that had become her comfort object, staring at it fixatedly, and then looking up at Sai as Kinzoku spoke, as if distracted from her previous thoughts. She reached up and smoothed a lock of Sai's inky black hair and listened to the deplorable man across from them speak. Tenten was obediently remaining silent. She was so still that Sakura was sure that the majority of the room had forgotten her. That would work in their favor in a worst-case-scenario situation.

"Is three-point-five mill sufficient?" Kinzoku asked. Sai made a face and turned his head a little as if mulling over the number.

"Just three-point five? You can't raise it to four?"

"No. three-point-five or no deal, Dai-san."

Oh no, Sai had been demoted to "Dai-_san_". Kinzoku was a cold and fickle bastard.

"Three-point-five and women from your neck of the world to fill up the trade." Sai bartered. Kinzoku gave him a flat look but Sakura recognized it as a calculating expression. He was thinking about it.

"Very well then. Those are the terms." Kinzoku agreed. Then he smirked.

"Have you tried the netsu yet?" He asked. Sai snorted.

"'Never get high on your own supply.' That's probably the first rule, isn't it?" He asked. "Besides, the wife would get pissed if I slipped up around her."

Kinzoku raised an eyebrow.

"Damn, a wife too?"

"A wife too." Sai confirmed. "She's great with the kids."

"Not so much in bed, huh?"

"Not since the second one came along." Sai shrugged, reached over to take another sip of the champagne and settled back next to Sakura, glass in hand, arm around her shoulders. She sunk into his chest. "'Have to support their education somehow."

"And if they want to be shinobi?"

"They won't."

"How do you know?"

"They won't." Sai repeated with finality. Kinzoku chuckled.

"You sell them all like that?" Kinzoku asked, changing the subject as he tipped his head towards Sakura. It took every ounce of her self-control to _not_ pummel him into next week.

"Most of them. This one's for the well-paying ones. She's personal, but I don't mind sharing."

"You're a giving man."

"The world needs generosity."

Kinzoku laughed.

"And if I asked to spend a night with that one?"

"You'd have to raise the bar on the deal." Sai smirked. "Break the new one in for me, though." He jostled Tenten in his arm and she flinched.

"She's plain." Sakura could hear the frown in his voice.

"She won't be when you finish with her…or in her, whatever." Sai took another drink as he shrugged. Sakura rubbed a hand across his chest.

"Tch. You're a great salesman."

"That's why this whole thing works for me."

"I don't doubt it. How about you work for my group? Directly under me." Dai offered.

Sai snorted and tipped his head towards the masked beasts lurking in front of the exit like hellhounds guarding the only portal back to earth from the underworld.

"You seem to have enough working for you." He retorted. Kinzoku smirked.

"You have jokes."

"I do."

"You know I meant my offer."

"I do."

"And?"

"I don't work for anyone. I consider us business partners with mutual interests and one common denominator. Certainly you don't mean to tell me you see me as an underling."

"Just testing out your balls." Kinzoku smirked again.

"Well, are they big enough for you?"

"Hah, I don't swing that way."

"Maybe you do… what do you think of adding men to the trade?" As Sai spoke he rubbed Sakura's shoulder with his forearm, spilling some of his drink onto the leather of the couch to not appear suspicious. Sai was certainly a genius at subtlety.

"Good luck with _that_." Kinzoku huffed in a disbelieving tone. Sai chuckled.

"I wasn't serious."

There was a pause, and Kinzoku appeared to be done joking. The tension was so thick if Sakura breathed the wrong way she'd send visible ripples across the air.

"I want that one, Dai." Kinzoku bartered, getting back on topic. Sakura knew he was talking about her. She felt like he was disrobing her with his eyes.

"This one?" Sai questioned innocently, and turned his head towards Sakura and rubbed her arm. He acted stupid only to buy time. Kinzoku only stared at him flatly. "Hmmm…" Suddenly, Sai bent over and caught her in the _dirtiest_ kiss she'd ever been caught in…like _ever_.

…

…

…

Fucking great. Sai was her first kiss… while Ino was his wife. She felt dirty but reminded herself that they were tools on missions, not people, no matter how much Kakashi and Naruto tried to change that. Shinobi were shinobi. Yes, they were people too, but on missions they were machines, doing what they must.

She kissed back as whorishly as she could and tried not to throw up into his mouth; he tasted like alcohol and tobacco…_disgusting_. She would have to put a finger down her throat and clear any remnants of his saliva out later.

"I don't think I want to give this one up. She's good at sucking dick." He commented after the kiss she'd hate forever...and then bit her lower lip as an afterthought. He turned to Kinzoku. "She likes it. 'Won't let anyone stick it in until she cleans it first. She's top notch. I'll need payment. If you want a commemorative gift, I can give you this one." He ran a hand up and down Tenten's inner thigh. "She's still tight. Iwa dicks are small, apparently. Ne, Umi?" He turned to Sakura for confirmation and she chuckled in a sultry tone in response, resisting the urge to _actually_ laugh. Sai _would_ make a dick joke in a situation like this. Once he got his confirmation he turned back to Kinzoku.

"Well?"

"You don't budge, huh?"

"Would you have made half the money you did if I was the type to budge?"

"Two mill for her."

Sai nodded slowly, as if he was hesitant about agreeing.

"Two mill sounds about right. I'd prefer two and a half, but seeing as today we're officially business partners, I'll let it slide."

Kinzoku chuckled.

"You're a generous man, Dai."

Sai shrugged carelessly.

"If you say so." He turned to Sakura. "Go. I'll pick you up from the rendezvous point later." He commanded.

Go? _Go_? What the hell was she supposed to do? _Actually go_? She was terrified. Would she be able to kill Kinzoku? She would have to unseal her weapons or her own brand of drugs… and if she were caught… what the _fuck_. She got up and stumbled a little because of her heels but it looked like she was on something so it added to her charade. They probably thought she was the one who did half the line of coke on the table. Sai slapped her hard across the ass as she left and she stumbled again, letting a squeak lose from her throat.

She was _so_ going to fuck his day up for _all_ of this… if they survived. The death rate of infiltration missions in Iwa was at a percentage of one hundred because of the very bastards standing in front of her now. It was silent as Kinzoku and Sai watched her walk towards him, only to be roughly grabbed by the elbow of one of Kinzoku's men. She hadn't seen him step forward, despite the eyes she'd been training since twelve and he _dwarfed her in every way_. He was wider, more muscular and taller than her. He was even taller than Kakashi-sensei. She was terrified as he dragged her next to him.

Would they notice the pulse of chakra if she reached to "scratch her neck" but actually activated her storage seal? Would there be time before they reacted? Were they susceptible to genjutsu?

She had no idea.

They had no perforations in their masks, leading Sakura to believe that they either had a doujutsu similar to the Hyuuga, or used impeccable sensory skills to operate. She ruled out the thought about anything similar to a Byakugan. If that were the case, the enemy shinobi would have noticed their developed chakra systems right away.

She banked on sensing capabilities. She wasn't sure if it was possible to _walk_ and avoid stumbling while blind and using a sensory ability, but perhaps they were able to sense nature energy instead of actual chakra. Was it possible to pull nature energy out of metals and woods that buildings were made of? If so, could they see it in their mind's eye thus allowing them to maneuver within buildings?

Who knew? Either way, his eyes were covered, and hers weren't. She was also sure her strength could trump his oversized form. She decided to go for it. And by Kami-sama she and Naruto would find a way to kill almost all of these motherfuckers and bring Kinzoku back for T&amp;I to have fun with.

She and Sai avoided eye contact. She made sure to look down. This way, she was playing her part and he was playing his.

"Well, now that that's settled…" Kinzoku rose out of his seat and Sai got up on "swaying" legs to meet him at the edge of the table. They shook hands and kept them there for just a moment. "Send your man to the pick-up point while you drop off the load and you'll have your money and your whores."

"Of course." Sai said with his fake smile. "Too bad it won't happen that way."

That was the signal. She unsealed her kunai and stabbed it through the guard's chest in one fluid motion just as Sai death-gripped Kinzoku's hand and flipped him with all of his strength on top of and _through_ the glass table with a telltale sound of shattering glass following the attack.

The muffled music playing outside of the VIP room's walls made Sakura's blood pound faster as she approached the next guard who had _just_ decided to lunge at Sai. He hadn't noticed that his friend who previously held Sakura in his custody was currently taking his last breath and sliding down the wall. Perfect. She could get him from behind before he reached Sai.

Or not.

The third man had noticed and started to barrel towards her with speed that could compete with Sasuke's. She steeled herself.

Tenten shrieked somewhere in the background, but that didn't worry Sakura. She knew the fear was fake, meant to make herself seem innocent. She heard Kinzoku curse and the sickening sounds of bones crunching.

"_J__ust kidding_!" Tenten laughed and a second later the sound of squelching blood and gurgling breath filled the room.

Sakura attempted to punch her opponent, but found herself _violently_ "kicked" back by something that felt entirely like a concrete wall or pillar and found the bones in her shoulder crunching as she hit the wall on the other side of the room with enough force to make fissures in it.

While she regained her bearings, she heard a cry of frustration from Naruto, and the sounds of air and fast movement.

"They're using nature energy!" Naruto hollered over the chaos of Sai and Kinzoku's taijutsu spat, which Tenten joined in on. Sakura's theory was proven correct.

"That's _my_ asshole friend you're attacking! Who do you think you are!?"

Sakura smirked as she got up off of her knees after sliding down the wall. Tenten was always fiercely loyal to _all_ of her friends. She didn't have much time to celebrate, however, as the enemy was already in front of her. She quickly rolled under and between his legs, getting behind him as she forced her chakra to go _mayhem_ in her body.

She wanted to confuse the nature sensor in front of her. He whirled around _inhumanely _and pulled his arm to the side, as if he were holding a whip he was about to crack. She used her imagination and made an educated guess as to what the attack would look like with chakra, based on how she was attacked before. She pictured it swooping in a large arc, so at the last minute, she dropped to her knees and was rewarded for the action. She felt a rush of air rip her wig off of her head. That one would have hurt.

But this one will hurt more.

He jumped when he saw her lunge forward, still on her knees, but it was too late. Her adrenaline helped her move fast enough to grab his ankle and _squeeze _with all the chakra she could tightly compact into her hand. She ceased her violent internal swaying of chakra and used her other hand to hold his knee cap steady to the floor when he fell with a scream and a crunch.

If he thought that was painful, then this would be worse.

She used her strength to bend his leg upwards, while still holding his knee down, bending it entirely in the opposite direction it was meant to bend in.

The sound of his knee cap snapping and the sickening squelch of skin ripping and cartilage slipping coupled with his scream of absolute horror and pain filled the VIP room, and he promptly passed out. Sakura unsealed a syringe filled with a slow-releasing sedative, and stuck it into his shoulder, thanking kami-sama that the needle went through his strange body armor. She then tied his hands and what was left of his legs together.

She jumped up immediately and ran to help Sai, but that was when _shit got real_. Sai, Tenten _and_ Sakura were blown back by a hasty wind jutsu from Kinzoku. She heard a cry of pain from Naruto—who must've _still _been fighting the woman—and decided that enough was enough. She ripped herself up off of the floor, despite her crunched shoulder, and lunged in pent up rage and fury.

"Shannarooooo!" She aimed to punch Kinzoku but he dodged at the last second and her fist broke the entire section of wall and caused the VIP room to collapse.

"Shit!" Tenten cursed. That was when the floor shook for just a second… and they all fell below. Sakura had no idea how many causalities or civilian fatalities had occurred thanks to her botched move, but she had no time to feel guilty for any of them. As soon as she dusted the rubble off of her, a wave of reinforcements rushed in through the entrance of the club, shoving people who were rushing to get out aside.

They were fucked. It was her fault.

"Take out anyone in your way and retreat!" Sai ordered above the chaos and screams and booming music. Sakura looked through the flashing colored lights when she heard anther loud explosion and saw him escape through a hole in the wall that couldn't have been caused by anything but an exploding tag.

The man she broke and bound was hefted over his shoulder and honestly made Sai look strange as he ran. Someone in Sai's weight class couldn't possibly carry a man of that size, but somehow he managed it.

A feminine shriek followed by a gurgling sound echoed across the music and Sakura knew that Naruto was done with the woman from before, which was fantastic seeing that they had four more nature-users to deal with.

"You guys run! I'll get as many of them as I can!" Naruto instructed.

Sakura turned and saw the organe markings on Naruto's eyes as he dashed forward to meet the red-masked enemies head-on. Sakura would _not_ leave him, even if he _was_ the best person to fight them. With a small pulse of chakra she broke the heels of her boots off on the concrete rubble beneath her least she could do is lighten his burden, so that's what she aimed to do.

Knowing the enemies would follow her, she threw kunai at two of them and saw them deflect her weapons just as she broke into the fastest run she could manage, gaining as much of a head start as possible.

Their arms had lifted and it was like the forest of death all over again when Dosu and Zaku used their sound waves to blast away her weapons, except these men made no noise. It was inhuman and terrifying and she _ran_ hoping Tenten would follow her example. She didn't. She stayed. That was fine with Sakura. She would lead the two pursuing her away and was certain she could deal with them.

She escaped through the hole Sai made just as the two started to follow and looked for an impromptu plan. It came to her in the form of a hotel two buildings away from the club. She discreetly broke the window of a room on the first floor and slipped inside, using chakra to make up for her damaged shoulder. Her body was automatically healing it, but it was a slow process. She would have to stop, change into her gear, and heal herself simultaneously, somehow in the next three and a half minutes or so.

Thankfully the room she broke into was empty and she immediately opened the entrance to it and slid into the hallway like a wraith, using her chakra to muffle the awkward clicking of her damaged boots. She ducked into a random room, masked her chakra…

and quickly flipped her kunai, pointing it outwards from her lower back towards an unknown enemy behind her.

Shit.

"Sakura?"

She knew that voice.

_Sasuke_.

She whirled around, not wasting any time in healing her shoulder. She looked him over. His shirt was off, which turned her on, especially in the heat of battle where her adrenaline and hormones were already jacked up and all he wore was a silk pair of sleep pants. She swore she caught sight of his size somewhere during her quick sweep of his looks. He had looked over her as well with those impossibly dark eyes of his, and she knew he was confused as to what she was wearing and why her eyes weren't green.

"Sasuke! What are you doi—

"Mmn? Sasuke?" A feminine voice interrupted her excited whisper.

Who the _fuck_ was that!?

Her head snapped over to the queen sized bed and made out a head of bright magenta hair in the moonlight filtering through the window. The girl fumbled on the nightstand for something; her glasses.

Uzumaki Karin.

"What's Sakura doing here?" She asked groggily. No wonder she hadn't freaked out like Sasuke did. Sakura was familiar to her and she wasn't a threat…

Well… at least she wasn't _before_.

She suppressed the killing intent before it could bubble up. She was in danger. Fuck Karin. She could deal with her broken heart later.

He was studying her face and though it looked neutral she could see the distress in his eyes. He was guilty. She wasn't surprised in the least. He had left her to go on a soul-searching journey, promising to come back to her and left for the better part of two years and now she stumbles in on _this_. She had to give them credit, since they _did_ shower and didn't smell like sex, but she wasn't stupid. The scent was still faintly _there. _He also looked immaculately relaxed. Despite his instinct to attack, his muscles were loose and his skin looked good. He looked great; better than he did when he was seventeen.

He had gotten laid, probably hours earlier. And Karin was the one who laid him.

Fantastic. She needed his kunai the fuck away from her however, so she put on a confident, neutral expression and spoke.

"It's okay. Just move that away from me. I have two after me and I don't have time to mess around." She commanded as she tipped her head to the kunai he still had out and pointing at her throat. She held hers in her hand and continued to heal herself as he nodded. Sakura turned around to face the door, just in case and saw him move to pick something off of the floor; his clothes.

"Get dressed." He softly commanded Karin. She heard the woman slip out of the bed and gritted her teeth. She had never heard such gentleness in his tone before.

Amongst the rustle of clothing and silent steps, Sakura stripped, uncaring of who saw her naked. She might as well give Sasuke a peek of what he was missing, right? She knew she had a fantastic ass, and petulantly hoped that Karin would get jealous.

One by one, she unsealed articles of clothing, mentally rifling through her seal and slipping her clothes on, healing herself in the process, only breaking away from the task when she needed to put her top on and tie the drawstrings of her pants. She clipped her white vest on, zipped the skin-tight turtle neck around her throat and slid her gloves and metal arm guards on. She unsealed all of her pouches, medical kit, and her katana and fastened the sheath on the clips on her back.

"How long until they get here?" She asked professionally. She knew Karin was a sensor, and knew that the woman had already pinned the enemies down.

"The angry ones with small chakras? _Those_ are the threats?" She asked disbelievingly. Sakura wanted to fuck her up.

"They're using fucking nature energy." She ground out. "I'm not surprised they have small chakra systems."

The awkwardness in the room increased by a lot but Karin cleared her throat and concentrated.

"Ten seconds. They move _really_ fast. Almost as fast as you, Sasuke."

"They might run past us. But that's a slim chance." Sakura mentioned.

"We should move towards the window." Sasuke advised.

"Good idea." She agreed but didn't budge. She had her own plans.

"Sakura." Sasuke warned. He didn't like her not listening to him. She could have snorted if she wasn't busy at the moment. Who was he to order her around?

She had three seconds left.

Her shoulder was nearly healed and three seconds was all she needed to fill in the last few cracks in her bones. She would have to make sure she didn't get hit by that kind of attack _ever_ again. It turned her bones into pebbles. It was very painful and if her chakra hadn't numbed the pain naturally upon impact she was sure she'd have passed out like the guy whose leg she bent too far forward.

Three seconds…

Two seconds…

Sakura channeled chakra into her fist.

One!

She exhaled as the door opened with a bang and her fist crashed through one of her pursuers. She blasted a hole in the man's chest three times the size of her fist—just for show, of course; she had an audience to impress—and watched as his body flew off of her forearm and hit the wall with a sickening, wet thud.

She shivered as his blood cooled on her skin, but she didn't have time to consider the way she had killed him. She felt a rush of…_something_… it wasn't chakra and it wasn't air, but it called to perhaps what she would call a seventh sense. She pulled her hand back into the room and took a step back just as the entire hallway collapsed, spewing thick, white dust and concrete into the room. She would have gotten caught in that attack had she not been more aware. She dodged backwards before any of the concrete could hit her and coughed momentarily in the dust.

Now was a good time to follow Sasuke's previous command. She headed across the room towards the window that Karin had already slid open. One by one they jumped out into the street below, just as the destroyed hallway was once again blasted away. The thick fog and dust of construction escaped the window amongst screams and cries of horror and shock as lights from the buildings around the alley they were in started to flick on.

That was their signal to run… that and the sound of explosions in the rocky no-man's-land of Iwa outside of the city. Sai and Naruto seemed to have taken the fight to the desert and once again, she was a little late to the party. She ran fast enough to keep up with Sasuke as he carried Karin away and eventually, minutes later they caught up to her team. Sakura and Sasuke whirled around to face the red-masked man that had been chasing them but he hadn't caught up yet. Sakura was sure that within seconds he'd be there.

"Sasuke-teme!" Naruto cheered. He was in his gear, and his wig was off but his eyes were still green.

"Yo, traitor." Sai coldly greeted as he waited for the dust in the distance to settle. He had also gotten changed.

"Sakura! You're okay!" Tenten was still in her outfit from before, but she was currently wielding a handful of senbon, an axe and a scroll. She looked spectacularly dangerous. Sakura smiled at her. She wished she could have had the drive and tomboyish tendencies Tenten had when she was a kid.

Nevertheless, Tenten, Naruto, and Sai were standing in a circle around their prisoner, who was _still_ unconscious thanks to Sakura's sedative.

"Eh? Karin-chan?" Naruto queried as Sasuke placed Karin down on her feet. He wore a black hooded cloak that covered a white, collared tunic and dark pants that were tucked into shin-high boots. She only just now noticed him, and was grateful for every bit of training she had received from the anbu operatives of Konoha, because if she was still the girl that pined for him to the point of danger and distraction they would have had a problem a long while ago. Granted, she still did love him and felt her heart breaking in her chest, but she'd deal with that later so long as it didn't interfere with their survival and the success of the mission.

"Where's Kinzoku?" She asked. "Dead?" She hoped.

"Um… he kinda got away…Sakura-chan." Naruto laughed a little nervously. She growled and shot him a glare. They'd failed their mission.

"Fuck." She hissed.

"It's fine. Hokage-sama didn't expect us to get him. The captive is enough to glean information from. Focus." Sai commanded.

The dust cleared and revealed two corpses in pieces littering the radius of a large crater. Sakura peeked back at the "ground zero" and concluded by the shape and size of the hole that the enemies fell into a well-placed trap, probably concocted by Sai. They were sloppy if they got blown up from below.

"Yosh! They're not a problem anymore." Naruto grinned at her with a thumbs-up. Of course he'd still grin around disembodied arms and legs in the middle of a particularly dangerous mission.

"He is." Sasuke interrupted and Sakura whipped her head back forward as she felt Sasuke charge a chidori in his hand.

"Don't get hit. He'll turn your bones into granola." She warned and Sasuke smirked. He always did like a challenge. Pain lanced through her chest. She loved him. She really did….

Apparently, he didn't love her back, because in her peripheral vision, Sakura saw Karin focusing with her hands molded into the tiger sign… and on her ring finger was an expensive, ruby-studded white-gold ring. She didn't want to look at Sasuke's hands to confirm her suspicions, but she knew she would have to at some point or she'd go crazy. Thankfully, she didn't have to debate on falling to the temptation any longer because their enemy released a throaty battle-cry unlike any other Sakura had ever heard.

He launched an attack outwards at them. Sakura dropped to her knees and bent backwards, letting the attack skid just over her nose. She was only able to predict the way it was going by looking at his hand motions and making an estimated guess on what he was trying to accomplish. Ino would have been proud of her use of psychology and understanding of body language.

The rest of her team had jumped over the attack, but while on the ground she tapped her finger towards the man. It was an unfortunate mistake on his part to _not_ pay attention to her. The twenty feet of ground between them cracked, snapped, and exploded from her attack and the man made a startled noise as he fell.

The second he opened his mouth to make his surprise known, Sasuke, Sai and Naruto were already on him like lions on a wounded gazelle. He screamed as Sai's ink snakes held him down so Naruto, much like she had earlier, could hollow out the man's chest with his rasengan, giving Sasuke the opportunity to simultaneously behead him with chidori. The attack wasn't necessary, but Sasuke was the type to not leave any loose ends.

The excitement died down and thankfully, no civilians or otherwise came running to their location. Their mission was over and their success was fifty out of a hundred. At least, to Sakura it was, despite what Sai had said earlier. It would have been a true victory had they also managed to halt the drug operation led by Kinzoku, but at least they had a lackey to interrogate and some information on the mysterious ring leader.

"…Naruto?" She murmured and turned to look at him with a broken expression.

Naruto blinked as his attention slid to her. "Sakura-chan?" He replied curiously. He still managed to look innocent, even with the blood splattered across the white of his anbu vest. His eyes were warm and bright as always. Nothing could bring him down. In recent years she realized she aspired to be like him; optimistic and relentless. She was relentless, but as it stood she wasn't always optimistic.

"…What's the death toll?" She wanted to know how many lives she ended for a half-completed mission. Her eyes widened when Naruto grinned at her, putting the moon above them to shame. If the sun were out he'd put it to shame too.

"Zero!" He exclaimed. "The first punch scared people so they moved away from the VIP booth you ruined quick enough to not get crushed by it. The security at the club got scuffed up and I think one guy was crying about a broken leg or something, but no one died." He continued to grin at her and she smiled brightly back, a weight lifted off of her chest. Leave it to Naruto to always deliver the good news.

"And the hallway in the hotel didn't have any support beams in it…" Karin added quietly. The people in the hotel must have been safe too, then.

"Thank kami-sama…" Sakura weakly smiled. Kakashi wouldn't be disappointed in her for weakening the bond between Konoha and Iwa by killing civilians. It would be easy for Konoha to help Iwa rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed during their mission. The outcome was more of a gain than a loss. There would be no dead souls to drink to upon arriving home.

…Though there would certainly be dead dreams to drink to.

However, she'd worry about that once they finished the clean-up.

-X-

So this is my new Narusaku. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. Remember, this is not some otome, sunshines and rainbows fic where Naruto and Sakura get together quickly. There will be some fucked up shit in this fic. I'm telling you guys now. It's only because it's going to take some fucked up shit for Sakura and Naruto to get together. I don't know how long this fic will last, or how many chapters. Everything is up in the air, but regardless I will continue to write it from here on out.

See ya later space cowboy!

Naruto ®™ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and I make no money off of this.


	2. Homecoming

KAGAYAKI

|2|

Enjoy. A lot of you are wondering how old the K-9 are. **They're 20**. At least, Sakura is. Theoretically if **Sasuke and Naruto were 17 at the end of Shipuuden**, Sakura would be 18. Sai calls her a hag because she's the oldest out of their team. So I'm just going to assume that **she's 20, but older only by several months.** Keep in mind**, Sakura is born in March, Sasuke in July and Naruto in October**. So, I hope this clears things up.

-X-

Sakura had what every alcoholic knew as "the spins". The world was twirling around her and she could only numbly stare at it. Ino, perched on a tall barstool next to her, was idly waving away the skunky smoke ghosting from somewhere on the other side of the room. Sakura was sure her childhood friend had a contact high. It wouldn't be long before the blonde became just as dizzy as she was. Alcohol and weed just didn't mix well together for either of them.

"So what happened? You've been locked up in your apartment for a week! You know Naruto's getting worried." Ino half-heartedly griped with glazed eyes.

Sakura snorted. He _would_ cry to Ino and tell her that Sakura cooped herself up in her apartment. He might've even asked Ino to take her here, since Sakura was always up for a drink at her favorite bar. She could be wrong, however. This outing could be entirely Ino's idea. Who knew?

Sakura idly ran her finger around the base of her glass, filled with a husky whiskey on the rocks. The jade bar top was smooth and damp against her calloused skin.

"Sasuke's married." She blurted quietly and watched the backlighted shelves and bottles of liquor dance around behind the bar. They shouldn't be, but who cared at this point? Sakura didn't know why she was whispering. She and Ino chose the last two bar seats against the cerulean, brick wall of the bar. It wasn't like anyone else would really hear them.

"What!?" Of course, Ino would tactlessly open her big mouth. Sakura couldn't blame her though. She was probably as drunk as herself, or at least well on her way there.

Some patrons at the other end of the room, where a band was playing smooth, toxic music, looked over at them, but quickly turned back to their entertainment when they deduced that nothing serious was going on.

Ino's skin seemed to glow in the warm, dim light above them as she blushed and whispered an apology. Sakura laughed in response, but only because her friend looked like an alien, no thanks to the blue-green glow behind the shelving eight feet in front of them. Her laugh died when she was reminded of how sourly she was dumped. Well, she wasn't _dumped_, exactly, because there was no relationship to begin with… but she was definitely led on. Sasuke seemed like he made a promise to her when he left. She should have known better than to have faith in vague, undefined words.

"I can't tell you the details, but I stumbled into a hotel room to buy some time. Guess what I stumbled on." Sakura replied, trying not to slur. It wouldn't be long before she would have to stop herself from getting sloppy. She glared at the ice in her glass. She shouldn't have gotten whiskey. Whiskey was meant to be sipped slowly. What she needed was a shot of the clearest liquor available in the bar. 180-proof would be the best— the closer to rubbing alcohol it tastes the better.

"Was he fucking someone when you walked in?" Ino whispered, lowering her head and tucking her blonde bangs behind her ear to make sure she didn't break eye contact. As an afterthought, she adjusted her bra beneath her naval-revealing, purple top. Sakura almost growled petulantly. Ino always looked better in half-shirts. She had the boobs to fill them out. Sakura was cursed with b-cups and a big ass. Tsunade said that she'd fill out in her later years, but she was now twenty and almost at the point where her body would stop growing and it hadn't happened yet.

Well… not everyone gets dealt the best hand in life, right?

"No." She grumbled, and her voice sounded aggravated, but at the moment she was angrier at Ino's chest more than she was about the Sasuke incident. "But he had hours before. He was oh-so-fucking relaxed as he held a kunai to my back." She explained with a wave of her hand and a tip of her head for emphasis.

Ino just stared as she let the information settle.

"…So what happened?" She asked after a pause.

"He married Karin. I saw the ring on her finger and I saw the same one on his." She snorted. "The Daimyo must be jealous of the Uchiha bank account. 'Fucking white-gold band with real rubies encrusted all over it. There was a pretty big diamond on there, too." She lifted her glass up tenderly, as if drinking to their happiness, and caressed the poison in it with her pink lips. Six drinks ago, her esophagus stopped burning, allowing her to enjoy every sip of every drink afterwards.

Ino whistled and entombed the straw of her curvy glass in her lips. She took a long sip of the icy, orange drink and then stabbed the fruit at the bottom with her straw. "That's serious."

"Yeah." Sakura agreed. "Yeah it is." She glared at the shifting countertop beneath her glass. "He's fucking coming back in a month because she's pregnant."

"_What_!?"

"Yeah."

"Is he _stupid_!? What about the rest of his life!? It's too early!"

Sakura snorted and ignored the few stares they received.

"Well, apparently he's done sight-seeing and gallivanting. Babies _are_ his last goal."

"I thought his plan to 'restore the clan' was to kill everyone who betrayed it." Ino grimaced, obviously a little miffed with Sasuke.

"He changed, remember?"

The only thing that didn't change about him was his relationship with Sakura. Ino shook her head.

"Well… what now?"

Sakura laughed at herself. She spent a week in her apartment sorting through her messy emotions but couldn't for the life of her find a proper course of action to take. She'd have to be embarrassed from now on because Kakashi was going to send Sasuke on missions with their strike team.

"Surprise, surprise. He wants to 'eliminate all threats' to the shinobi nations with Naruto. So guess who's going to be on my team from now on…"

"No fucking way." Ino was in disbelief, but Sakura ran her over before she could say any more.

"He _requested_ to work with Naruto."

"So you had no choice or say."

"Nope."

"Why would hokage-sama _do _that?"

"That's what I wanted to know."

"Did you ask?"

"And look like a broken woman? I have more pride than that."

Ino frowned at her.

"I think he ratified it because he and Sasuke are so alike. Naruto didn't want to give an opinion on the spot— he's not stupid, he knows how I feel— but it's not like he can help being happy. Sasuke's his best friend. They're like brothers. I can't just shit on Naruto's dream… he always wanted us to be a team again…" She tipped her glass back. There was still too much whiskey in it.

Fuck it. She downed the whole thing in one shot. The bartender, a white-haired girl with emerald eyes and tan skin heard the clink of the glass and came over with three shots wedged in between her slender fingers, breasts bouncing slightly in her black, v-neck shirt.

Aiia was Sakura's favorite bartender. She was a civilian but she should have been a kunoichi. The woman had balls of steel and identified with Sakura on a lot of things. Being somewhat friends, she already knew Sakura wanted shots before the woman could even find the energy to ask for them. She placed the clear, little glasses in a row in front of her and smiled.

"180-proof, Sakura-chan." She confirmed before Sakura could ask.

"Arigato, Ai." Sakura smiled.

"Want a Kiri explosion, too?"

Sakura snorted at the perverse name, but it _was _her favorite drink. How could she refuse?

"Yeah, extra blue, please."

"Sure." She grabbed the empty glass of whiskey and quickly walked away to place it in the sink.

When she thought about it, it was kind of sad that Aiia's artwork would go right down Sakura's throat, and out into the toilet later. What a sad life alcohol had…

Ino watched as Sakura picked up the first shot, inspected it for a second and tipped it back. Once the shot was gone she exhaled loudly, all ladylike manners completely forgone.

"…So what now?" Ino parroted herself.

"We drink more." Sakura replied with a smirk, not wanting to think about the shit storm she paddled her boat into. Ino shot her an annoyed look.

"That's not what I meant, baka."

"I know." She responded solemnly. Ino was the only person brave enough to force her to face her issues.

It was silent for a moment as Sakura contemplated how to answer her. What to do now… She loved Sasuke almost her entire life. Of course, at first she had a childish crush on him. Her feelings weren't those of love. They mirrored infatuation. However, when she realized how broken and angry he was she fell for him, _hard_. She _let_ herself fall for him. At the root of things, her current emotional crisis was all her fault. She should have seen what his rage would do to him…to Naruto… to her _and_ Kakashi-sensei— hell— to the whole damned village and world. She was a stupid girl and had been a stupid girl up until a week ago when reality hit her like an unwanted punishment.

She wanted nothing more than to love him because he deserved the love. He deserved to heal and he deserved to feel like he had a safe place; a safe person that he could be himself around. She wanted to be that person for him.

She should have seen things from his perspective a little more, even if it was hard for her.

She should have realized that she has an obnoxious need to save anyone and everyone she can. It's no surprise she became a medic, really. With a bleeding heart like hers, she didn't know how she was able to kill so many people these last three months. Yes, Sakura had an attraction to people who needed to be saved. Sakura needed to be someone's hero, not realizing that she couldn't save everyone and that more often than not, she bit off more than she could chew. Foolish Sakura…how sad.

She thought about how missions would be from now on. She would have to treat Sasuke like a friend, like a comrade… like he never broke her heart. She would have to do it for Naruto. She'd have to don a façade and forgo getting her closure, because she knew Sasuke wouldn't even broach the topic with her. His marriage was a big middle finger to her and his expression when he looked at her in the hotel room was enough to convey his apology. No words _needed_ to be said between them. She already told him it was okay, anyway. She secretly wished she would have emotionally lashed out at him and slapped him through a wall. He probably would have let her if his expression was anything to go by. Too bad anbu helped her reign in her reactions.

"I'm going to have to treat him like a friend." She murmured and focused on one particular bottle that seemed to stay stationary when everything else was moving around it. Her eyes felt weighted and slow… or perhaps it was the shifting room that was slow and not her eyes?

"…Will you be able to do that?" Ino didn't seem certain. Sakura wasn't offended by the naked opinion in her voice. She didn't think she could do it either.

She snorted anyway.

"I could ask Sai for pointers." She cackled like an old crone.

"Saku_ra_!" Ino smacked her naked shoulder and gave her an extra shove that almost pushed her off of her seat for her callous joke.

"He calls me ugly. I have a right to make fun of him too. If you want, I'll go tell him now that I made the joke, too, so you can't say that I should at least dis him to his face." Sakura pointed at Ino as she defended herself.

Ino shook her head.

"Be serious though." The blonde brought the topic back on track.

"We still have teamwork… I guess…" She trailed off and shrugged. It was something right?

"Well…look at it this way…" Ino trailed off and Sakura watched her chew her lip. "You know what, nevermind. I don't think you're in the right stage to hear it yet."

Sakura was immediately offended. She didn't like _anyone_ thinking she couldn't handle something. It was a complex she had.

"What, no! Tell me." She ordered. She was hurt and the alcohol exacerbated her emotions, making her feel like Ino outright _betrayed_ her.

"Well…" She looked like she was on the fence. Sakura pounced on the opportunity to sway her the way she wanted her to go.

"I'll keep i' inn~mind and won't reject it; promishe." She slurred with a hand up to convey her honesty, and then shook her head. She _finally _reached the point where she would have to fight the belligerency and obnoxiousness that came with inebriation.

Ino gave her one last hard look and nodded. Sakura noted that her icy eyes were glassy, as if someone had taken the time to carefully remove them, dip them in a clear coat of nail polish and gently place them back where they belonged.

"Well… can you really blame your current emotions on him?" She asked.

Sakura gave her an annoyed look.

"Of course not, what am I, twelve years old? I'm not mad at _him_. I did this to myself." She shrugged, but it felt _good_ to say that out loud. The logic of the statement made her feel like she could control her feelings if she really tried.

"Well…" Ino pursed her lips again. Sakura rolled her eyes. Getting tough love out of her best friend was like pulling teeth. Ino would never admit it, but she was nicer to Sakura than most people.

"Ino." Sakura warned. Ino sighed.

"Damn it, Sakura. You keep putting me in between a rock and a hard place."

"Not true, your husband isn't anywhere near here." Sakura shot back.

It took Ino a minute to process the response and when she finally got the perverse joke she smacked Sakura's arm again as the rosette snickered.

"Ugh, whatever. Listen, are you really that surprised that he married her?"

Sakura remained quiet for a moment, and Aiia came by with her drink. She confidently placed the blue concoction in front of her. A definitive thump of the glass against the counter reached her sensitive ears and momentarily broke her wispy train of thought.

"Enjoy!" Aiia grinned and cleared the used shot glass off of the bar.

"Thanks Ai!" Sakura _just _barely managed to convey her thanks in time. The girl scampered off quickly at the behest of another patron, but Sakura was sure Aiia heard her.

"I was surprised at first." She affirmatively responded to Ino.

"Think about it for a minute then. There's something you're not seeing." Ino supplied. She was going to use the Socratic Method to _guide_ Sakura to the right answer. It was almost like a game to Ino, and Sakura had to admit, she liked playing it too. Finding answers to problems always gave her a feeling of satisfaction.

Looking inwardly, Sakura mentally scanned through every memory she had of her interactions with Sasuke. She rifled through their history twice before Ino spoke again.

"C'mon forehead, you're putting me to sleep. Think… Why K~rrin and not you…" Ino hinted and took a long sip of her drink. Uh oh… Ino was getting there too.

Why Karin and not her?

…

Sakura went over the memories again, sluggishly, until she realized a tiny detail she had overlooked previously.

"…He spent way more time with her than he did with me." She spoke with furrowed, fine brows, as if she was half-guessing the answer to an oral test.

"Bingo."

Sakura shot the bar table an annoyed look.

"Makes sense…" As far as anyone knew, Karin had lost her family early in her life. She and Sasuke probably identified better with each other. It _did_ make sense. Sakura could never _understand_ his pain, even if she had her entire heart set on helping him alleviate it. She had never lost her parents like either of them did. She wasn't of the same mindset. The worst thing that had happened to her was nearly losing Naruto in the war. It took eighteen years for something truly despicable to happen to her. She didn't regret that. She never would. Her parents were alive. Her friends were alive. She hadn't _lost_ anyone. She would _never_ regret that, even if she lost an opportunity with Sasuke because of it.

…

It was still fucked up of him to poke her on the head and tell her to wait, though. It really _shouldn't_ have been a surprise, though. How pathetic. She was so blind.

She realized that she wasted two years waiting for him and the tears she thought she couldn't cry anymore came to her eyes yet again like some curse she couldn't expel. She wasn't mad or upset with Sasuke. In fact, she was _glad _he found someone he could click with. She couldn't bring herself to hate him because he was _happy. _She was mad at herself for wasting so much time.

She choked back a sob and took a deep breath. She was grateful that she was dehydrated because her damnable eyes didn't drip as much as she knew they could. Ino rubbed her back and the comfort made her shoulders shake with silent sobs. It wasn't hard to be strong when she was crying by herself, but it was impossible when someone was there to care. The emotions broke through the dam she built in front of them and drowned her.

"Sakura…" Ino whispered quietly with a piteous tone.

"I wasted two years. _Two_ years, Ino…" She tried to stay as quiet as possible. Last thing she needed was a rumor being spread around about her. She didn't want _anyone_ to know about her crying at a bar… over the time she wasted waiting for Sasuke.

"It's okay…" Ino soothed her.

It wasn't okay. It wasn't okay and she cried harder when she realized she wasted her _life_. There were so many good, _handsome_ guys she had come across—Shikamaru for example or Gaara during that whole akatsuki disaster— that she could have _totally_ flirted with, but _no_, she _had_ to have stupid fucking Uchiha Sasuke!

She didn't just waste two years waiting for him after the war. She wasted her _entire_ life! _On pipe dreams_! Why and how did she delude herself into thinking everything would be rainbows and happiness the second he came back?

"I'm so stupid." She growled through gritted teeth. Ino continued to pat her back.

"You're not stupid. You just did stupid things." Ino clarified. Sakura took a deep breath in and exhaled.

"I'll never get that time back." She finished weakly. Her moment of fury was over as quickly as it came and was replaced with emotional exhaustion. Anger took so much out of a person. How did Sasuke manage to stay angry for as long as he did?

"But you can make up for it." Ino tried to be optimistic.

"I don't want to fuck anyone." Sakura pouted and put her large forehead on her palm to prop her spinning head up on something. Things were going to hell really fast and she still had two shots of perfectly good alcohol to drink.

"You don't need to fuck anyone. Just force yourself to bounce back. Take it one step at a time. Do something good for yourself." She paused a moment, slid her hand off of Sakura's back, and put a finger to her lips in thought. Sakura forced herself up and took another shot with a bland expression on her face. Bouncing back would be difficult and she didn't _need_ to do anything for herself… except get stronger now that there were entirely different beasts just beyond the borders of Iwa.

"Hey I know! Let's go get waxed tomorrow! You've been away for so long you probably need it."

"I got waxed in Iwa." She shut Ino down, but she didn't care. It was the truth. Ino, in response, pouted with pretty, full lips.

"Traitor." She huffed.

Sakura shrugged.

"Fine. We're getting our nails done." She said with finality.

Sakura frowned, a wrinkle between her light pink brows.

"I want to train. Can we train?" She asked like a child asking their parents to go to the toy store.

Ino shuddered.

"No _way_, Ms. I-fuck-everyone-up-because-I'm-Anbu. Ask Naruto. I'd rather not die. We can go to the bath house, though… and get a massage!"

It was funny to Sakura that Ino was afraid to fight her. How the tables have turned… Regardless, Sakura contemplated the thought of getting a massage. She was glad Ino didn't suggest eating ice cream, because Sakura would probably eat her way into a diabetic coma. A massage would be nice, but she was angry now and all she wanted to do was fight. Perhaps later…

"Ask me later in the week. I need to fuck something beautiful up first." She grumbled. Ino cringed.

"Just stay away from my flowers."

Sakura snorted. Ino _would_ make that comment.

"Selfish." Sakura shot back.

"Tch. Forehead."

"Pig."

"B-cup."

Sakura punched her shoulder and Ino made a noise of pain and rubbed the abused appendage.

"_Hey_!"

"You deserved that. You _know _that's a sore spot!"

Ino rolled her eyes.

"Sakura, you're beautiful the way you are. Stop whining about your boobs. Go home, eat ice cream, _because you can_—you skinny bitch— and come back when you're ready to fight again. We're going to find someone healthy for you; a guy that has his shit together."

"Someone healthy?"

"Yes. _Healthy_. A _loving_ relationship."

Sakura snorted.

"I think I fucked myself up, Ino." Sakura paused for a moment to think. Her mind wasn't working as fast as usual and she couldn't decide whether to be aggravated with herself or not. "I think I'm _attracted_ to assholes."

Ino nodded slowly and took another sip of her drink as Sakura took her last shot and placed the empty shot glass next to its equally barren twin.

"You're attracted to lost souls, no doubt. You need to find someone complete; someone who has already dealt with their issues."

Right. That _would've _been Sasuke, but Karin got there first… Sakura must have done something terrible in her last life because Kami-sama was punishing her for it now.

A fleeting thought struck her and she snorted.

"You mean like Kakashi-sensei?" She murmured.

Ino coughed, choking on some of her half-finished drink.

"He's _thirty-two_ are you nuts?!" She hissed when she recovered, and held a hand to her chest as if it would stop her from choking.

"I was kidding. Also, I wouldn't _not_ date him because of his age. That's fucked up. Guys can still be attractive at thirty-two. I wouldn't date him because he's my sensei and he didn't pay enough attention to my training when I was a genin." She pouted and gazed longingly at her empty glasses.

"Wow, you resent him for that?"

"How could I not!? If he at least taught me _one_ ninjutsu—just _one—_ I could've made more of a difference!" Sakura replied, ready to defend her theory to the death.

"Well… it's too late now."

At least Ino agreed.

"Yeah, yeah it is."

They lapsed into silence, sipping on their drinks and Sakura slipped back into her thoughts as she tipped her dwarfed champagne glass back and enjoyed the blue toxin within it.

A man who has his shit together…and is _healthy_ for her… and _isn't_ taken… and… does he have to be as strong as Sasuke or stronger? She wanted someone at least strong enough to compete with herself. She'd feel too dominant if she were the stronger one. She wanted to feel like a woman in her relationship because everywhere else she was masculine. She _had_ to be to keep up with Naruto and Sasuke, or at least reach them with the tips of her fingers. It was a major accomplishment to say that she _did_ get on their level, but it killed her femininity.

She sighed and decided she'd be single for a _long_ time.

A guy like that was another pipe dream. She refused to dream that way again.

After a time, she asked, "Are cats healthy?"

Ino snorted. "You're joking."

"I'm serious. I want a cat." She narrowed her eyes. The edges of her vision were getting fuzzy.

"You're gone for weeks and months at a time."

Sakura frowned. Life wouldn't even give her a cat.

"Thisssss~ssucks."

"It doesn't have to."

"I'll lishten in an'ther week when I'm tired of beee'ng miswerrrble."

Another blanket of silence settled over the two. Ino steadily worked on her drink as Sakura tipped hers back, despite the dangers of her doing so. She was climbing closer and closer towards alcohol poisoning. She monitored the activity across the room with her failing peripherals. One dark-haired man had his arm draped across his blonde-haired girlfriend who tenderly rested her temple against his shoulder. Gently, he rubbed the round of her shoulder with his hand.

Someone who had already dealt with his issues…

…

…Naruto dealt with his issues.

The thought was a whisper in her mind but it had the impact of a thousand oscillating cymbals.

Naruto was happy. Naruto was the rock she leaned on for support since she earned her genin title. Naruto was kind, generous, gentle, loving and powerful. Naruto…

The memory of him almost dying on the battlefield filtered into her mind like an unwelcome genjutsu. Pushing past the remnants of fear and despair, she blushed to herself, because that was the day she tasted his lips. They were salty, chapped, and touched with dirt, but it didn't matter, they were still pleasurable to caress while she performed CPR on him.

What would it be like to _actually _kiss him?

She had hugged him once… no, twice. She had to place her drink back on top of the bar table because her head began to spin and her heart began to pound as realization settled over her like a suffocating winter blanket in the middle of summer.

She thought of all of his promises, and all of his accomplishments. He achieved all of his dreams.

And he loved her, despite her obnoxious dislike and abuse of him.

She refused to see him the way he saw her for the longest time. But towards the end of the war, she had to admit she _had_ fallen for him, even if it was just a fleeting thought in her mind. She occasionally felt some pulsations of feeling for him since the time he returned from his training with Jiraiya-sama, but she suppressed it or shoved it aside. How _idiotic_.

It took near-death and a war to get her to realize her feelings. She hadn't uttered a word to him about her change of heart, however. She didn't deserve him and Hinata had been there for him from the start, even if it was in secret. He deserved to be happy. She had hit and berated him so many times in the past that she thought there was no going back from that, at least, not in her mind. Sasuke's faux promise at the very end, coupled with Hinata's unwavering support and presence placed the final nail in the coffin of that potential relationship. She had pushed the possibility of that relationship into the deepest recesses of her mind and moved on with her life.

She was so stupid… So, so _so_ stupid.

A wave of nausea slammed her stomach and she choked back vomit. The taste of stomach acid and alcohol filled her mouth but was quickly swallowed back down and followed by a disgusted shudder. The night was about to take a _really _bad turn.

Naruto held off on his relationship with Hinata after the war. He must've waited because he was still holding onto Sakura, and Sakura was too _oblivious_ to see it. She had suppressed the possibility of them being together. For once… she was the idiot and Naruto wasn't.

More tears spilled from her eyes, but these were quiet. Ino didn't even notice she was crying as she tried to stab a strawberry at the bottom of her drink with a straw and pull it out of the glass. The room blurred the rest of the way as her pupils drowned in her tears. She missed the chance of a lifetime and now it was too late.

She felt a wave of pain in her abdomen and slapped a sluggish hand on it a little too forcefully. The bile in her gut threatened to come up again in response.

"_Shit_." She cursed.

Ino's head snapped over to her and the blonde looked at her with a horrified expression.

"Your friend is paying you a visit _now_ of all times!?" She hissed with wide, ultramarine eyes.

"Fuck… _fuck_. I need a tampon, tell me you have one sealed away somewhere."

"Come on, I'll take you to the bathroom. They should have some there."

"Ugh, I hate those." She replied with a wrinkled nose.

"Yeah, but your apartment is on the other side of town. No way are you going to alert every ninja in this village about your period. They'll smell the blood in the air. You know how it is." Ino grumbled as she carefully stepped onto her feet.

Sakura groaned and slowly slid off her seat. She forgot that she had undone the birth control jutsu to have her period. She swayed and stumbled into Ino, who wasn't doing too good balancing herself either. Their trip to the bathroom would be a complete train wreck.

"Fuck." Ino cursed and held onto the bar.

"Yeah, fuck." Sakura replied, steadying herself on Ino's shoulder. Her stomach churned audibly and her stress threatened imminent projectile vomiting. "I don't wanna throw up Ino…" She almost cried. She didn't want to embarrass herself in public. That wasn't in her plans tonight.

"Me neither, so just don't throw up on me, okay?"

Sakura snorted. Leave it to Ino to make her laugh.

"I'll make sure to get it in your hair." She snickered as Ino wavered, threatening to tip them both over on the floor.

"Ew, shut it, I don't want to think about that. Last time I went out to drink with my team Choji got vomit on my ponytail."

"Did you shun him for a year?"

"No, just a week."

Sakura laughed. Ino could be a bitch if she wanted. Another cramp hit her and she felt her knees go weak. She'd rather have someone cut her arms bone-deep than have her period at the moment.

Here's to the end of a shitty week.

**SAKURA **

Exactly a month later, Sakura had gotten her period again, like clockwork. She successfully completed three, one-week missions with Naruto and Sai, the former unable to shut up about how awesome their team would be with "four bad-asses-ttebayo!" At the end of this week, or sometime during it, Sasuke would be walking through the village gates for the first time in two years and she really didn't want to be there.

"Konichiwa, Sasuke-kun! Ready to be a dad?" She mocked in a superficially sweet tone under her breath. Her words sounded callous and cruel to herself. She didn't care. In her red pajama shorts and black-and-orange t-shirt that she stole from Naruto, she fished in her mahogany cabinet for a bottle of sake.

"Like hell. Fuck him." She wasn't mad at Sasuke, but sheneeded to be mad at someone other than herself so he was the target of her anger today. She had gotten over being led on by him over the last month and had even enjoyed herself on some of the missions she went on—minus the bloodshed, of course— but his return would rub in her face the time she wasted and the chance she missed. She was also stressing about her reaction to seeing him.

If she smiled, it would be a sad smile. It would make her look pathetic. If she glared, she'd look angry and petulant. If she stood there with a blank expression and no reaction, she might as well just tell everyone her heart shattered a month ago. There was no right way of doing it, so she planned on avoiding him for as long as possible. Maybe they wouldn't see each other until their team had another mission to complete, where she could blame her stoicism on the professionalism required on such highly-ranked missions.

The worst part was that she _couldn't_ lean on Naruto for support this time. If she did, she'd spill her thoughts on him and make their friendship awkward. He was with Hinata now and the one thing she refused to look like is a home-wrecker.

She growled at her cabinet. Wherethe _fuck_ was all her sake? There had to be at least _one_ bottle left!

It was day two of her damnable period and it was only eleven in the morning. She had finished a rough hospital shift the night before and hadn't gotten much sleep.

…It had to be six o' clock _somewhere_, right?

She eventually ended up with her knees on the granite countertop, scratching her head of messy hair, scanning the wooden shelves for any sign of alcohol of any kind. Her eye happened to trail over to the covered, grey trash bin tucked in a convenient corner in her kitchen. Next to it was a black bin in which she collected recyclables. She saw her sake bottles in the ebony container and rolled her eyes. She finished the two bottles two nights ago.

…There simply wasn't enough damned alcohol in the world.

A knock sounded at her door, and she used the cabinet to pull herself to her full height on top of the counter. She back flipped gracefully, and her feet hit the grey and white tile of the floor almost inaudibly. She walked out of her kitchen, into the open-floor-plan of her apartment and stepped into the genkan before her thick, mahogany door. She turned the knob, her stance slightly relaxed to prepare for a battle if need be. Anyone _normal_ would tell her she was being overly cautious, but shinobi weren't _normal_, especially Sakura of all of them.

Her door swung open to Naruto, cheery and grinning as if he'd been awake since before the sun rose, which she knew wasn't true. She and Naruto were both lazy and enjoyed their sleep.

Too bad they'd never get to share their lazy tendencies with each other.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" He greeted with an enthusiastic hand up.

"Ohayo." She replied, surprise quickly fading. "What's going on?" She asked, alarmed. It wasn't unusual for him to drop by every so often, but he hadn't come over to see her in two months. What was happening now that he stopped by after so long?

"Whoa, whoa. Relax-ttebayo. Nothing _bad_. Sasuke-teme's coming home today!" He grinned again and she plastered a fake smile to her face.

"Oh, he is." She replied.

_Fuck._

"Do you want to come in?" She asked, remembering her manners.

"Well, I kind of have to meet Hinata-chan soon… so…" He trailed off guiltily with a pained smile and a hand scratching the back of his neck. She shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. Have fun, Naruto, and wish Sasuke well for me." She dismissed and began to push her door shut, assuming the conversation would end there.

"Oka— hold on, _wait_!" He started to agree but caught himself and the door she was about to shut with a frown. The edge of the wood bounced off of his sandaled foot. She was too tired to shove him away so she swung the door back toward the inside of her apartment.

"You sound like you're not going to come with me to see him…" He murmured in a disappointed tone. It killed her to see him distraught, but she wasn't going to ruin her own day and his by being in a place she didn't want to be.

"Because I'm not going." She confirmed flatly.

"Eh? Well… why not?" His eyebrows pinched together and the corner of his mouth turned down to transform his surprised expression into a confused one.

"I don't feel good."

It wasn't a lie. She cramped from time to time and frankly felt like ripping someone's head off if they breathed the wrong way around her.

"Oh, well have baa-cha—

She decked his shoulder.

"O_w_! Sakura-_chan_!" He looked at her with horrified blue eyes. He wasn't expecting the hit, but he certainly could have dodged it if he wanted.

"Stop calling her 'baa-chan' will you!?" She glared.

"But she _is_ old." He argued back after rubbing his shoulder. Sakura growled and Naruto quickly changed the topic. "But, uh, yeah you should go see her. She'll fix you and then we ca—

She was going to have to be blunt. It would hurt his feelings, but she'd have to make him understand that she _couldn't _go.

"Naruto." She sighed, "I don't feel good and I don't want to see him."

All light faded from Naruto's face as she slammed him with her raw honesty. His sky-colored eyes, however, retained their natural shine and liveliness. Naruto couldn't look hollow if he _tried_.

"You don't want to be friends with him." Naruto affirmatively stated, but he looked at her with a pitying expression. She took a deep breath to contain her anger. She didn't want his pity. Who _ever_ wanted to be pitied? She was stronger than he was giving her credit for. She would just have to prove it.

"I want to be friends with him, but I don't trust myself to not get angry… I'm over it, but I don't want to risk slipping up." She could talk to Naruto about her feelings. He knew what she felt, or used to feel, for Sasuke. "You understand… ne?"

His shoulders slumped and she saw his fingers twitch in an effort to refrain from putting his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, I do." He sounded melancholy and she hated herself for putting him in that mood. He paused for a moment, looking at her as she avoided his gaze.

"Do you need me to get anything for you… since you're not feeling all right? You should probably have baa-chan look at you, too…"

He was genuinely worried.

She _should_ go with him just to make _him _happy but she _really_ wasn't up for it. She was irritable and moody. She wasn't up for bullshit and pretending that nothing happened. If she snapped she'd fuck _everything_ up and the first thing on that list would be Sasuke's pretty face.

"If I need to, I'll go to her. But right now, I'm okay." She grinned up at him. "The only thing I don't have right now is sake."

A confused look settled onto his face.

"Sakura-chan… it's _really_ early…"

Sakura shrugged. "I guess it's good I don't have any, then."

She watched him look over while she felt heat creep up her chest and neck. He really _was_ attractive. He had taller, broader, and his hair was cut just a bit shorter. What fascinated her most about him, however, were his large, blue eyes. They were as endless and cerulean as a cloudless sky.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, are you really oka—

She shut him up with a too-quick smile.

"I _am_. I'm okay and I'll be okay. Just… go have extra fun for me, okay?" She insisted.

He frowned and looked at her one more time until he finally nodded.

"Ja-ne-ttebayo. I'll come by later too, okay?"

"Don't worry about m—

He grinned and disappeared in a cloud of smoke before she could finish telling him to stop worrying about her and refuse his offer. She shook her head but smiled to herself. Only Naruto would pull something like that on her. He was getting good at evading her senses too.

…

What a shame.

**NARUTO **

Close to evening, Naruto managed to convince Sasuke to join him for a bowl of ramen after they dropped Karin off at the newly built Uchiha manor. Sasuke had spent a lot of money in building the mansion and had requested it be built atop the land the old Uchiha compound stood upon. The destruction from the war and Pein's attack on the village had done most of the clearing out of the place, cutting the expense almost in half. Nevertheless, the furnishing of the home had _just _been completed the night before Sasuke's return. Naruto and a hundred of his clones had helped.

The two brothers sat in front of two identical bowls, Naruto naturally eating faster than the composed Uchiha next to him. The blonde had no shame. He knew Sasuke didn't expect his manners to have improved, and knew that the obnoxious slurping and talking with his mouth full while Sasuke grunted responses would instead be nostalgic for the both of them.

After a period of silence, Naruto decided to slurp louder and even belch. Teuchi smirked to himself in front of his pot, and shared a quick, unnoticed glance with his number one customer as he continued to aggravate his friend.

"Where is Sakura?" Sasuke _finally _asked the question Naruto knew was on his mind, if only to stop Naruto's incessant belching and chopstick-licking.

Bingo. Sasuke had fallen into Naruto's trap… but he wouldn't tell Sasuke that. No, that was mass destruction just waiting to happen.

"…And the pale one." Sasuke added to save face. It wouldn't do for a married man to speak of the woman who carried a torch for him for years now, would it? Naruto was only mildly upset that Sasuke would think he'd judge him in that regard.

"Sakura-chan isn't feeling good. And Sai-teme's on a mission."

"Hm." That meant "oh" in Uchihanese.

During their silence filled only with the sounds of chopsticks hitting ceramic and quiet slurping, Naruto could see the gears turning behind Sasuke's focused gaze. He was no fool.

Earlier, Naruto had left Sakura alone because she _wanted_ to be left alone. Sakura was a doctor. There was no way she'd let herself come down with something, or leave some internal issue untreated. Sasuke knew this just as much as Naruto did. Naruto knew that Sasuke deduced her behavior was because of him, even if only partially.

"I know what you're thinking," Naruto touched on Sasuke's unspoken conclusion, "but she really looked…I don't know, bad?" He defended Sakura anyway. He understood her pain. It was the pain _he _felt when Sasuke tapped her forehead before he left. Her eyes were filled with a love and adoration that would never be turned in his direction.

"Hm." That, coupled with a nod, meant "ok".

Naruto was sure that something else was up with her, too, but whatever it was, she could handle it.

After all, she was Sakura-chan. She was awesome when it came to medicine. She always refused to fan her own flames and agree, but she _did_ surpass Tsunade-no-baa-chan like everyone else knew she did. Sakura was _really_ strong. He was proud of her, as a teammate and as a friend. She came a long way from what she was in their early years, and the fact that she was mentally and emotionally stable after what they discovered about Sasuke showed how much she grew over the years.

It had been a rough month for her…and for Naruto too. It had been so hard for him to resist trying to comfort her in some way. She looked alright on the outside but he could _sense_ what was going on inside of her if he tried and he had to admit that he often did. He wanted to reach out and hug her so many times, like today at her apartment, but it wasn't right. His heart was Hinata's… right?

He glared at the noodle he couldn't capture with his sticks. He was getting confused again. Should he say something? Should he break up with Hinata and just confess already? Was that even right? What if he did and Sakura rejected him...? What if he did and he realized he loved Hinata more than he thought he did?

Either scenario was disastrous to think about.

He felt a lot for the Hyuuga heiress and couldn't write his feelings off as simply "nothing". However, he couldn't _help_ but pay attention to Sakura when she spoke, or moved, or laughed, or…or anything, really. He often wondered if his mind just naturally focused on her out of habit or something _more_; something deeper.

He tried to wake Kurama up so many times and ask for advice, but each time he poked the sleeping fox, he just rolled over and continued snoring. He prayed at Ero-sennin's grave over and over but the answer wouldn't come to him. He had even followed Sai's suggestion and spent extra time sleeping, just to see if maybe a dream could give him advice, but that hadn't worked either.

Now all he could do is wait…

And run around in circles in his mind. He thought about talking to Sasuke about it. It would be convenient. They were eating at the moment. It would be the perfect time. However, Naruto could _feel_ the weight on his best friend's shoulders. He received many glares upon his return and would have a _lot_ of "reintegrating" to do. He was also faced with an expecting wife and his own dreams of raising a family. It wouldn't do to dump his struggles on Sasuke's already encumbered mind.

For now, his thoughts and feelings would have to remain secret.

**SAKURA **

Normally, sleeping on a couch would hurt, but not on her couch. The leather was supple and the cushions were cloudlike and lulled her to sleep with ease, courtesy of the fat paychecks she received for slaughtering people. She often woke up in the middle of the night to move from place to place to sleep. Her nightmares made her antsy, especially when they were vivid. Ino said writing them down would help her, but she never felt like writing when she woke up.

Tonight, she didn't wake up because of a nightmare. Tonight, she woke up with a chakra scalpel directed at Uchiha Sasuke's neck. She had moved on instinct and fully woke up when she heard the smooth wall of her apartment crack.

"_Fuck_." She hissed and slowly let her old teammate go.

"You smell like alcohol." Sasuke commented once the glow of her chakra receded. She shot him a nasty glare as she flicked on the light next to his head.

"Nice to see you too. Would you like some tea and onigiri while you're breaking into my apartment and pissing me off?" She huffed and trudged over to her kitchen. Of all the people to disturb her… the one person she was afraid of snapping on let himself into her apartment. Why was she surprised? Her luck tended to work that way. She was growing more and more similar to Tsunade-sama by the year, it seemed.

Sasuke, in his bland dark pants and white collared shirt stood in place and watched her with his mismatched eyes. A normal person would have looked awkward, but not Uchiha Sasuke. He stood there, so graceful and composed that he looked like he _belonged_ there.

Why was his rinne-shari-whatever-gan activated tonight? She turned an onyx knob on her stove and listened to it click twice before the fire shot up out of the burner. She turned to place her teapot on the fire and watched as his one eye melded back into charcoal to match his other one.

"Well, go on, sit." She grumbled with a wave of her hand toward her bar counter. "I'm already awake." She reached into her cabinet and heard him move into her kitchen to sit on a contemporary, steel bar stool. "Welcome home." She added as an afterthought and hoped it didn't sound sarcastic or forced. She recited "don't be mean" in her mind over and over and over again, but it violently clashed with the simultaneous "don't be too nice" command. Either extreme would get her into a confrontation she didn't want at—she looked over at her round kitchen clock— three-seventeen in the morning.

Once she had two tea cups out, she looked over at him, sitting as silent as a wraith, his hands loose in his lap and his sandaled feet on the rungs of the tall seat.

"Chamomile or green?" Those were the only two flavors she had and they were both cheap and came packaged in individual, papery bags.

"Green." He chose the last remaining bag of green tea she had. Once she was in her pantry, she pulled the bag out and placed it in the brown mug. She threw the empty box with perfect aim right into the recycling bin across the kitchen and fished out a chamomile bag from another box. After scrutinizing it for a moment, she decided she didn't want it. She placed the box of chamomile tea back into the cabinet, quickly opened the cabinet next to it and placed her mug back into it. She walked over to her stainless steel refrigerator, growing antsy in the silence, pulled it open and took out her filtered water pitcher. With the pitcher in her hand, she opened another cabinet and pulled out a tall, opaque, grey glass. She poured the water into the glass, and moved to the sink to refill the pitcher.

She watched as the water briefly trickled through the filter in the basin above the pitcher. When she lifted the pitcher out of the sink to put it back into the refrigerator, Sasuke spoke.

"Is it because of me?" He quietly asked. His voice was smooth and dark like the tastiest chocolate and she _envied_ the woman who would get to hear him speak every night before bed.

She refused to pause in her stride or change anything in her stance no matter how much his blunt inquiry cut her heart. Truthfully, she hadn't expected him to confront her directly about their foggy, lusterless past and peel back the scabs on her heart. Anger, sadness, resentment, betrayal… they all flashed through her chest at his question. Yes, it was _all_ because of him.

She hid the emotions and snorted, something _else_ taking over her personality. She _couldn't_ look weak. Not in front of him. When she shut the door she rolled her eyes.

"No, _princess _it's not all about you." She turned around and saw him looking at her. He wasn't impressed and he wasn't convinced. She glared at his unyielding, near-blank expression. They both knew he was just waiting for at least a sliver of honesty.

"I don't fucking feel good. Excuse me for not—

"Jumping for joy at the gates for your return" was about to venomously roll off of her tongue but she stopped herself. He was happy. She couldn't be angry at him because _she_ was miserable. She took a deep breath and her words lost their heat.

"Sorry for not being there." She murmured quietly and shifted over to her counter to grab her glass. He nodded and she tipped the glass back to rehydrate. She held it in her hand and crossed her arms around her middle.

"So? Was the trip here okay?" She asked. What _else_ was she supposed to ask? What else was there _to_ ask?

"Hm." It sounded affirmative. Okay. Cool. What now? They sat in silence and she sipped on her glass some more. The teapot chimed and she quickly placed her glass down and shut off the burner to suppress its howling. She poured the steaming water into the mug, grabbed it by its ear and handed it to Sasuke. He delicately plucked it from her hands.

"Arigato."

She hated that word. No, she didn't hate it; she just hated the way it sounded in his voice. That was what he said right before he dumped her unconscious body on a bench.

"Mn." She replied. He watched the liquid swirl in the mug and she watched him.

The quiet ticking of the clock sounded like a hammer on a nail. The rest of her grogginess was slowly starting to fade and the more alert she became, the more uncomfortable she felt.

What the _fuck_ did he want already?

She started to get irritated as she watched him sip on the undoubtedly too-hot tea.

"Don't burn yourself because you want to leave faster. Just leave the tea."

His eyes flicked up at her before he removed his lips from the mug, a scintilla of surprise visible in his expression. She shrugged. She wasn't offended. She wanted him gone as much as he probably wanted to be gone. There was no need to be secretive about it. He nestled the cup in his hands, one bandaged and the other naked. She wondered how the hell they got to this point and marveled at how much time has passed. There was a time where his hands were less scarred and bandaged. There was a time where they both had less blood stains on their fingertips.

"I misled you." He stated bluntly. "I'm sorry." Then, he searched her face for a response.

"Fuck you, Shannaro!" Was what she _wanted_ to say. In fact, every cell in her brain was tempting the words out of her mouth. However, she didn't want to end his visit and their flimsy reunion on a bad note. After a few moments of them simply staring at each other, she shook her head.

"You need to communicate better. If I knew earlier I wouldn't have missed out on a great opportunity." She quietly responded and then shrugged to make herself feel like she really didn't care. She did care. She could have realized her feelings for Naruto sooner.

Slowly, Sasuke nodded. She would have been surprised if he had argued her point. He knew she was right; he should have sent a letter updating _all _of team seven of his marriage. He downed the rest of the tea and handed the mug to her, ignoring her wide-eyed expression. His eyes didn't even water at the scalding temperature of the tea sliding down his throat.

"I like my tea hot." He revealed. He wasn't forcing himself to be polite earlier.

"Oh." She replied as she took the cooling ceramic into her hands.

"We're going to go on a mission soon." He stated, and then smirked. "Don't lag behind."

The poison in her glare was more potent than any toxicant Orochimaru could have _dreamed_ of concocting.

"If I lag behind it'll be because I punched your ass to the designation point first." _Dick_.

He snorted a short chuckle and then disappeared with a shunshin jutsu.

"Yeah, goodnight to you too." She took her glass and his mug and placed them into her stainless steel sink. When she settled back into her blankets on the couch, she felt better. Now that the air was cleared between them they could _actually _be friends. It was also liberating to forgive him to his face. She felt like she could _actually_ move on. The only thing she was miserable about now was Naruto.

"I'm such a dumbass." She grumbled as she touched the back of her cool hand to her forehead. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly as she fully understood the weight of her mistakes. She'd probably be alone for a long time, doomed to watch everyone else find their happiness. As she pulled the silk sheets up over her shoulder and turned to face the back of her couch, she accepted her desolate fate.

Romance was corny anyway.

-X-

I'm glad you guys like this! Thank you kindly for all of the encouraging reviews! XOXO

See ya later, Space Cowboy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto ™® I make no profit from posting this.


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